Sen. Lee: Restore Work to Welfare

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) will introduce legislation [Wednesday] that will restore the work requirement for food stamps that President Obama first repealed in his economic stimulus legislation in 2009.

Since Obama first repealed that work requirement for able-bodied adults without dependent children, the number of such recipients has more than doubled according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

Lee’s new bill, the Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act, will try and move millions of Americans off dependency and into work by restoring work incentives for individuals and families.

The Left will try to portray it as cruelty. But channeling people into the workforce benefits them.

It’s important to remember that people need to work to rise in life. Job-hunting experts will tell you: If you are unemployed, get some kind of a job. If you walk your neighbor’s dog, bill yourself as a canine fitness coach. Anything.

I took part a teleconference with Florida Rep. Steve Southerland who has been fighting to restore a work requirement for food stamps. He said it was to bring people “the blessing of work.”

That’s an attitude that has been lost. Leftists plainly disdain work. Conservatives recognize real work is a good thing for the people involved and for the country.

People who are working are producing, and that benefits us all. I read somewhere recently about as great Helen Keller quote:

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

Work is good. Yes, it’s difficult. That’s why it’s work. This is one of those great underlying issues.

And of course Sen. Lee is speaking at our Conservative Leadership Conference. Go to clc2014.com for more info.

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